wicked//punk l.h

chapter five

may your weapon be kindness
your shield compassion
may the flowers grow again
to sprout love from all this sadness
||courtney peppernell||

ALL DAY I wasn't allowed to get away from what happened at the party. The party I had to miss. My afternoon spent with Luke just wasn't enough to sway my dads mind.

I was thankful when the bell rang and art was over. I didn't know how much more I could hear about Ayia's sex life.

Instead of going to the caf like always, I turned in the direction of the library. I knew that Luke and his friends would be down there and he would think Saturday meant something. We were still not friends. I just wanted to go to the party.

M

aking my way to the back corner of the library, I smiled at the silence. Hopefully nothing would ruin this for me.

I sat down at one of the round tables and took out my binder for math. I started scribbling down answer after answer using the quadratic formula until I got bored. For the whole period I sat there in silence, which I was thankful for.

When lunchtime came, I spent it with Reese and Ayia as usual. This time, I got the pleasure of meeting Chayse. He was honestly very attractive and I didn't see why he was on the 'do not smash' list.

"Missed you at the party this weekend," Chayse said, taking a sip of his water.

"Yeah you did." I didn't mean for that to come off so rude, but I was afraid personal information may come up.

"Why couldn't you come again?" Reese asked, digging into her low fat yogurt.

"Um," I tried to collect my thoughts as fast as I could. "My dad is real strict and hates the idea of teenage parties," I lied.

Ayia pouted. "Aw, does that mean you can't party with us ever?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "I bet he'll come around. It's probably because I'm still new around here."

They all nodded. "What was your last name again?" Reese questioned out of the blue.

"Hunter...why?"

"That name doesn't sound very familiar. What do your parents do?" she continued to question me. I had a feeling she didn't like me a whole lot, but wanted to find a real reason to hate me. If she wanted to dig up dirt on me, just go ahead and google my name.

"My dad is a cop and my mom is a lawyer back in Brooklyn," I lied. Those sounded like pretty wealthy jobs... right? At least it's better than a tattoo artist and a waitress making minimum wage.

"Chayse, your dads a cop right? Has he mentioned a Hunter?"

Keeping my cool wasn't so easy right now. I've only known this chick for a week and she's already reminding me of the fake girls back in Brooklyn.

"Why does it matter Reese?" Chayse surprisingly stood up for me. "She says her dad is a cop so her dad is a cop." Reese huffed, but didn't say anything else.

Chayse just smirked and sent a wink my way.

That small action made my heart melt.

The group fell into awkward conversation after that.

■■■

To my surprise, Chayse was in one of my automotive classes. By the look on his face, he didn't expect me to be there either.